YouthPowerMN℠

St. Paul Youth Services' youth-led organizing hub.

Our Motto

Kids Changing Systems vs Systems Changing Kids® 

St. Paul Youth Services’ YouthPowerMN℠ Leadership Institute offers an organizing hub where Black youth are compensated for their intellectual capital, lived experiences, and contributions to improve our communities. Youth can gather, reflect, express themselves, build skills, organize, and advocate for serious change on issues that affect their lives.

The program was initiated as a pilot program in the summer of 2017 for Black boys and Black young men. Programming for Black girls and Black young women was added during the 2017-2018 school year.

Since that time, the youth involved in our program have achieved remarkable goals, including the creation of a YouthPowered space; a strengthened sense of identity, culture, and community; creative and critical thinking through powerful storytelling vehicles; and a youth train-the-trainer and community building model. Our youth have also advocated to elected officials and other decision-makers on youth-designed policy changes impacting their lives. 

Our motto is: Kids Changing Systems vs Systems Changing Kids®. We believe that it is THE most promising and proportionate approach to dismantling systemic racism, and that by engaging youth in shaping and promoting solutions is a largely untested yet effective and strategic approach to change.

Want to learn more? Visit our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan Rollout Experience here.

NOTE: At this time, YouthPowerMN℠ and YouthPoweredMediaMN® Leadership Program enrollment is open to Black youth ages 13-18 who are currently or were previously participants in our Behavior Intervention Program or Pre-Charge Diversion program.

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YouthPowerED Videos:

 
 

Program Goals:

  • Immediate and long-term improvement in how Black youth are treated at and experience school

  • Broader awareness -- not just of educational inequities -- but of solutions identified, prioritized, and designed by Black students themselves

  • Engagement of Black youth throughout the systemic change process and compensation for their effort, leadership, and creative and intellectual capital

  • Use of multiple strategies for achieving systemic change so participating youth gain first-hand exposure with multiple community problem-solving approaches

  • Demonstration of a pioneering and sustainable model for community change (YouthPowerMN℠) to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy and create educational equity

In THE Words of our YOUTH...

“One thing I really got out of youth power is perseverance.”

“Before I came to YouthPowerMN, it was hard for me to advocate for what I was talking about. Now it’s kind of easier— just knowing what to say or knowing how to say it.”

“It changed my perspective on what my future is going to look like.”